It was sometime after 1am and Ft. Trotterdale had finally cooled down to something resembling bearable. The last of the daily thunderstorms had moved on several hours ago. Although in the far distance one could still see occasional flashes on the western horizon. I was sitting outside taking a break from rehearsals. I wasn’t part of Scratch’s actual stage crew, but my knowledge in cloud sculpting was being leveraged. So I’d been offering advice on how to make cloud shapes on the fly to Scratch’s FX crew. They knew their stuff, but I’d been able to provide some useful tips and ideas.  
 
Fortunately things between Keyboard and I had been resolved and at least a professional relationship had developed that allowed us to work together. We were never going to be close friends, but Keyboard no longer considered me a direct threat to her job. I could work with that arrangement.  
 
I was resting on a crate outside what had once been the central carriage house but had been repurposed to be the main rehearsal hall. Inside I could hear members of Scratch’s singers, musicians, dancers, and stage crew were talking about what had gone right with last practice set, and what they still needed to try again, and again, and again, until they got it right. Over the general din of ponies talking Scratch’s voice rang out.  
 
“Okay everypony! Take 15! drink up, take a piss if ya need it! Then make sure to getcha yer butts back here in 15 minutes!”  
 
Amethyst Dream slowly flew out the door and then collapsed in a panting heap on a crate near me. She ignored me as she downed a large glass of switchel. Then she flopped on her side and laid there. After a minute or so she finally spoke.  
 
“I remember when I was just a filly I thought. Wow! Being a professional aerial dancer would be so much fun! They all look like they’re having such a good time! I could do that all day!”  
 
She rolled onto her back and stared up at the nighttime sky. “Filly me never realized just how brutal having a such good time could be! Ugh!” Then she just laid there until Scratch’s voice called them back to rehearsal. Again.  
 
This evening was a full rehearsal for the entire crew. All departments were there to test the stage setup and work on coordination between them. Costumes, props, lighting, and special effects both magical and mundane were being put through their paces. Scratch was planning an invitation only show in a couple of weeks, and she wanted everything to be flawless.  
 
Enviably Scratch’s command brought all the members back together for another run through the current song they were practicing. My job was primarily to play observer and note any discrepancies in the cloud work. So I was sitting about halfway from the stage and frantically jotting down notes.  
 
As part of the song’s climax there was a rapid series of effectively scene wipes with fabric backgrounds being quickly swept from left and right across the stage like giant curtains to create the image of quickly moving across the kingdom to various locales. This required one of the Steel Strut’s steam engine setups to rapidly engage and move these sets. To the credit of the unicorns working for Scratch they had created some very effective sound cancellation spells that eliminated most of the horrendous screech the setup made. Having heard and seen it in operation without the spells in place I understood why Steel Strut wanted a new gearbox for the arrangement. The thing sounded like it wanted to self-destruct the whole time.  
 
The first hint something was amiss was during one of the runs when suddenly one of the curtain lurched abruptly to a halt halfway across the stage. This was followed by a sudden distinctive screeching sound that the cancellation spells had not been tuned to deal with. Suddenly there was a deep BOOM! This was followed by a sharp hissing roar and the smell of burnt lubricant and hot metal. This was punctuated by sound of Steel Strut’s voice thundering out.  
 
“Everypony get out of the building now! Move it!” As she said this I heard her release the emergency steam valve for the boiler. This shunted the steam from the boiler to the outside of the building. As a great plume of steam erupted a steam whistle suddenly howled out in the night.  
 
Scratch got everypony organized and located some distance from the building. As we exited the building we could see lights coming to life throughout Silver Mirror and many of the outlying buildings. Soon ponies were racing toward the emergency with lanterns.  
 
Having accounted for everypony but Steel Strut, Scratch turned around and galloped back into the building. Several tense seconds later she emerged with the earth pony. Steel Strut was soaked as was Scratch from all the condensation that had been created by the release of the steam in the carriage house, but beyond that they appeared to be uninjured. Although Steel Strut’s face was twisted up with anger and she was visibly shaking with an apparent mixture of adrenaline and rage. Scratch steered her off some distance away from us where they had a brief, heated, and animated discussion.  
 
Petina and Carousel had been elsewhere on the property when this had occurred, but very quickly found me. After a quick confirmation I was not hurt the mares started firing questions at me in rapid-fire.  
 
“Brick what happened? We were talking with Double Stitch when all of the sudden we heard this whistle and everypony started running out of the mansion.” Petina asked.  
 
“Sky Brush are you alright?” Carousel asked as she did a quick visual inspection of me for injuries.  
 
“Yeah I’m fine.” My attention was focused on Scratch and Steel. Due to the chatter of ponies around me I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but whatever Steel Strut was saying she was being very animated and angry about it. I watched her buck a nearby tree in frustration.  
 
Finally after a couple of minutes Scratch was able to calm Steel Strut down. With that accomplished her and the earth pony came over and addressed everypony gathered there. I found it interesting that even in the middle of the night Scratch didn’t remove her goggles. Scratch created a floating globule of light above her so she could be easily seen.  
 
“Alright everypony. As you probably figgered out that’s not part of the show! That sucked ass and we’ll need to take a better look in the morning and see what the fuck happened and how we can prevent this shit from happening again. This is the shits but the show will go on! We’ve got backups in case of shit like this, But for tonight we’re done rehearsing. Besides I don’t know about you but I need a drink! So, meetcha in the bar in a bit and we’ll unwind. That’s all.”  
 
With that she turned and headed for the mansion. Slowly the rest of the troupe started following her.  
 
To be continued.